104: Safe or Fun? Teacher’s Series

Today hosts Tiffany and Rachel discuss a question many yoga teachers grapple with: should we aim to make our classes safe or fun? Is it possible to do both?

In this episode, we talk about the challenges teachers face when balancing these two aims in all-levels classes. We offer tips on how to keep safety in mind as you plan and teach yoga classes, and dissect what fun could actually mean for your students.

Listen in as we talk about the pressure to teach appropriate and engaging classes to all-levels and share tips for encouraging your yoga students to become their own teachers.

“We’re aiming for a reasonable middle ground: perfect safety is impossible, but how can we provide options that give the bulk of our students somewhere that they can go.” – Rachel Land

“The only way and the best way to empower people for safety is to really let them know that they are their own best teachers.” – Tiffany Cruikshank

Show Notes:

• Is this the biggest question yoga teachers face? [1:03]
• Challenges teaching to the stated class level and description [2:26]
• Options are key [10:02]
• Empower students to be their own best teacher [12:22]
• Safe in the short-term isn’t always safe in the long-term [15:28]
• Curiosity over assumption; the importance of language [19:02]
• What actually makes a yoga class fun? [25:28]
• Countering the pressure for novelty and creativity [30:53]
• Big takeaways [36:20]
• Invest in in the students who come back, and your own ongoing inspiration [39:27]

Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Yoga Medicine Online
• Yoga Medicine Podcast Episode 74: Yoga for All: Community Conversations with Elena Cheung
• Sequencing with Purpose Yoga Teacher Training

“It is a place for doing awkward, uncomfortable, difficult things. It’s just that it is not the teacher’s place to decide when that is appropriate.” – Rachel Land